Posted 4 years ago on Jan. 17, 2013, 1:31 p.m. EST by GirlFriday
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The government is seeking to water down planned EU regulations on deepsea oil drilling, even while insisting to MPs that it wants "robust environmental protection" for oil drilling in the Arctic.

In leaked EU documents seen by the Guardian, the UK has sought to change proposals that could prevent oil and gas drilling operations that would leave fragile areas vulnerable. The UK is insisting that this clause be removed, because "oil spills may be effectively dispersed by wind and wave action and this is in itself one form of effective response".

Instead, the government appeared to suggest that leaving oil spills in deep Arctic oceans could be an adequate response.

18 Comments

Holy Shit !!! I did hear about this but reading it here, makes me want to post a turd to HRH Mrs. Lizzy Queen !! For her Golden Jubillee, the UK Government named a whole chunk of The Antarctic - 'Queen Elizabeth The Second Land' ! Can you believe that shit & what's a "beat down"? Don't tell me if it's rude!

There is alas, a rather overwhelming international scientific agreement in the actuality of rising temperatures. Even if the US Govt. wishes not to accept or acknowledge the science of major US scientific institutions, such as The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute ( http://www.whoi.edu/ ) or The Scripps Institute of Oceanography ( http://sio.ucsd.edu/ ) etc., internationally the scientists have known for well over a decade that 'something' is afoot.

'Mother Nature' has locked away VAST amounts of Ancient Carbon in the form of peat, coal, oil and gas. We know that there is a Carbon Cycle just as there is a Water Cycle, but that the time scale of the Carbon Cycle (which includes Geological processes) is much, much longer than in the case of water (simplified here to : evaporation, condensation, precipitation & run off).

Therefore, how can we as a sentient species, consider that we can bypass the Carbon Cycle and extract huge amounts of carbon based fuels, burn them and almost instantly (in geological time) return this carbon to the atmosphere Without There Being Any Repercussions ?! What is our individual and collective intuition on this matter ?!! That Carbon Dioxide even tho' it is essential to life via photo-synthesis, is also a 'Greenhouse Gas' is undeniable. The Greenhouse Effect is well understood and without it life on this planet would not exist. We owe our previously relatively stable climate to this and the level of CO2 has been pretty stable at ~ 300ppm (0.03%) for a very, very long time (verifiable from ice and lake sediment cores). However, that proportion has risen in the last 40 years to ~390ppm (0.039%) which is a 30% increase in CO2 levels.

Further, both water vapour and methane are also greenhouse gases and the level of both will also rise with rising global temperatures. This is termed 'positive feedback'. A Human Influenced and possible 'run away' Greenhouse Effect is empirically, scientifically and mathematically possible, so the question is do we accept or 'believe' that it is happening ?

The atmosphere is but a film above us like cling-film on a water melon. It's easy to assume that we can have no effect on the vastness of the atmosphere but this is not true. As the atmosphere warms, the dynamic and apparently chaotic but actually relatively ordered 'Climate System', has 'more energy' and will operate at a higher energetic level. Thus, 'The Climate' will be seemingly more chaotic to our perception. We are already witnessing weather records being taken to new levels throughout the world and this matter is not really up for debate - unless there is a truly vast international conspiracy of scientists at all levels !

Globally, as a species we can feel and detect that 'something is changing', that something is different now to how things were but we may choose to behave like the proverbial 'frog in a pan on a stove' &/or as a 'rabbit caught in a bright light' !!

Sadly, I don't really think that we will stop either our behaviour or its results in the short or even medium terms. It's now a question of adaptation, however consider this : That "The International 'Darksider-Sith' Ruling Elites" [translation : 'Parasites' !] actually do NOT mind countless hundreds of millions of the rest of us perishing if it means more for them and Less Of Us !!!

The above is compounded by 'Militant Pro-Industrialism' as well as by Religious Nutters - who IF they do have belief in 'Biblical End Times' (ie some Jews, Christians and Muslims !!!) do not think human action can possibly affect The Earth's Climate as only 'God' could do that AND when compounded by the sadly ignorant, those in denial and those who know but just don't give a shit ... well, we have quite a recipe for forthcoming perturbations, to say the least.

Have we truly entered the silly season now? UK suggesting "oil spills may be effectively dispersed by wind and wave action and this is in itself one form of effective response".---- $&@%^>^. F£€$&@ £%@&$. This ..... Is ...... just. . . . Fucking . . . Ridiculous. . . What's next? A suggestion that pollution causing dirty air quality should be INCREASED because that dirty air makes for better sunsets? At what point does a people tell its elite to go fuck themselves?

Thank you for signing our petition on Care2 urging President Obama to protect the Arctic Ocean from dirty and dangerous oil drilling.

We'll deliver your comments to the White House this September with hundreds of thousands of others, reminding the President that we oppose Arctic Ocean drilling and the threats it poses to polar bears and our warming planet.

You joined us at just the right moment, because right now, polar bears are indeed under siege. You can help.

Many polar bears den in one of the crown jewels of our nation's refuge system - the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - and Alaska Governor Sean Parnell has launched an unprecedented campaign to open the area to oil exploration. He even requested that taxpayers pitch in $50 million in federal funds to allow him to take the first step.

So far, thanks to pressure from people like you, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell has re-asserted the administration's opposition to drilling in the Refuge, and has rejected Governor Parnell's application to do so. However, Governor Parnell is escalating his campaign, and we need to make sure Secretary Jewell hears our voices today.

P.S. If you use Facebook or Twitter (@alaskawild), we'd love to get to know you online. Each day we post articles, news and photos about Alaska, its wildlife and other related issues. It's a light, fun way to stay connected so you understand our issues when we need you to speak up.

'The Arctic’s vast reserves of fossil fuels and minerals will become far more accessible than they are today. On land, oil fields in Alaska and gas fields in northern Russia have been producing hydrocarbons on a large scale for many years, but the estimated reserves under the Arctic Ocean are much larger. At today’s prices, these reserves could be worth more than $7 trillion, according to international energy companies; factoring in the accompanying natural gas, $10 trillion would probably be a conservative figure.' - from - http://www.nationofchange.org/taming-arctic-oil-rush-1358526702 .